The Search for a Purpose
by nz-999-schwarzritter
Summary: Surviving the horrors of the Neo Zeon War, Ple Two searches a purpose for her new life. As she does, she will find a new family, find love, and experience the final conflict in humanity's long, sad history...  As this happens, she will become a true hero.
1. Prelude

**Mobile Suit Gundam is not mine. I do own any OCs I create however.**

The medical bay of the Nahel Argama was the most modern in its type, as it had state-of-the-art computers, practical tools, and several sub-sections that allowed the simultaneous treatment of many patients.

Strangely enough, however, especially for a battle like the one being fought outside, there was only one patient in the medical bay: Ple Two, the clone of the beloved Neo Zeon-defector AEUG member Elpeo Ple. Lying in the bed, asleep, Ple seemed to shake her head repeatedly, as in discomfort; she was sweating, and her facial features seemed to twitch. As she did, she then felt something: several familiar presences beyond…in chaos, wandering and destroying…their souls lost…

She found herself before a huge battle between a red mobile suit, the Geymalk, and at least ten black Qubeleys. The red mobile suit, escorted by a white one, began firing at the black Qubeleys with their beam weapons. Ple then felt a pinch in the back of her head, and then remembered: the pilots of the black Qubeleys were clones of herself.

Her sisters…

And she felt concern: she felt that her duty was to save them from the darkness of conflict.

And so she reached her arm towards one of the Qubeleys, "Please!" she shouted, "All of you, back off! There's no point in fighting anymore! Master is dead!"

As she mentally began to approach the black Qubeley, she was suddenly pushed back when the red mobile suit, using one of its remote weapons, shot it right through the torso, destroying it. Ple gave a yell as she felt pain in her abdomen as she felt one of her sisters fading away…

Shaking her head and holding her tears, she then reached for another black Qubeley, which was deploying all of its funnels along with its sister units. "Please, sisters!" Ple then called, "Please, stop all of this! Run away!"

As she again approached them, she suddenly felt herself being pushed by a presence; it manifested itself as a black, tall figure. The figure opened its arms, and Ple felt dread.

"Back off, you failure!" the figure then said. Behind it, another of the black Qubeleys exploded…

"Please, step aside!" said Ple, "Let me save them! There is still time-"

"No!" the figure then said, "You are a failure, just like the original! If it weren't for you, my plans would have succeeded!"

Ple then realized who this figure was, as another explosion revealed the figure's features, "It's you…" she said, with her voice trembling.

"As punishment for you betrayal," the figure then said, "I shall let you watch…as your lineage disappears…ALONG WITH YOU!"

The figure's outline began to be surrounded by a light, and Ple felt a headache. "What…is this?" she wondered, as she recoiled from the pain.

Helpless, she then saw how the Geymalk released several funnel-like weapons and fired them in unison, hitting each and every Qubeley directly into the torso. The Qubeleys exploded, and Ple's headache turned unbearable, to the point in which she wished she would just die, just like her sisters, whose existence had faded in an equally unbearable way…

She felt their pain, their pleas to their late "Master" to help them…the redhead could only feel guilt for not having changed things sooner…

Ple _screamed_.

She suddenly found herself back in the medical bay as she opened her eyes and gasped She looked around her, and noticed that one of the AEUG members, "Elle", was bringing her some water to the table besides her. As Ple turned to see her, Elle noticed the injured Neo Zeon pilot looking at her. The blonde AEUG girl could only feel sorry for Ple: in her mind, no eleven-year old girl should be involved in war.

"Are you alright?" Asked the blonde.

"I'm…fine" Ple replied, still shaken by her previous experience. Elle handed the glass of water to the former Quin Manthas pilot, as the poor, distressed girl seemed to be in extreme pain. Elle placed the cup on Ple's lips, who drank some of the water. This seemed to help, as Ple's trembling started to fade off, although she still sweated heavily.

As Elle gave Ple another zip of water, the ship's distinctive alarm started to sound. "I'll be back." Elle then said, smiling at Ple, "Hang in there."

Elle then left the room, leaving a somewhat-calmed Ple alone.

At least an hour had passed as Ple lied in her bed. Having calmed herself down, she stared at the ceiling, realizing that it seemed somehow familiar…

And then she felt it: the characteristic pinch in the back of her head; a "flash", as many called it.

Holding her head with one hand, she then felt how Judau, the one who had saved her, grieved for someone. She then felt another pinch; someone died. She then realized who it was.

"Haman…" she muttered.

Despite the fact that Haman had been her enemy, Ple couldn't help but feel sorry for her: Haman had been, after all, only looking for a home for her people. The fact that she had aided Glemy's rebellion made her feel even guilty; to the point that she wished she would just die…

And then she felt something: danger. "Judau…" she muttered. Her savior was trapped in Core-3's ruins, and Ple felt that the only way she could make up for her past sins was by saving him.

She came out of her bed and struggled as she headed towards the base, as she felt her body heavy and weak.

"I must…" she mumbled, "I must…for the sake of Judau…I must save him…"

Using a handrail, she traveled through a corridor, took a turn, and then grabbed another handrail to continue travelling through the bridge.

After several minutes of floating through the ship, taking turns and pushing herself through the corridors, she finally reached the bridge.

"Judau…" she said. Elle, Beecha Oleg, and the rest of the surviving members of the AEUG ship, were all watching as Core-3 and Moussa began to explode.

"Damn it!" Beecha shouted, "We need to get Judau!"

Torres, one of the few surviving original members of the AEUG, turned at Beecha, "We cannot get through all that debris!" he said, "Not without damaging the ship!"

"But our pilot is there!" Elle then said.

"I know that, but…" Torres trailed off.

Ple sat in the "captain's seat", by now exhausted as evident by her deep and noticable breathing. Elle noticed her and quickly approached her, "You!" she said, "You shouldn't be here!"

"I must…save Judau…" Ple just said, with an exhausted tone.

"You can't do anything right now." Elle then said in concern, floating up to the Neo-Zeon rogue's side, "Just rest for a while, ok?"

"Judau…he is trapped." Whispered the redhead, "He needs…an opening…to survive…to get back to us."

"An opening?" Elle then wondered, "But how…"

She then remembered: the Nahel Argama was equipped with a hyper mega particle cannon, which was capable of considerably damaging an entire colony. It was their only hope…

"Beecha!" Elle then called, "Have the hyper mega particle cannon fired!"

Beecha gasped and blinked at the same time, in shock, "What? Are you serious? How can you possibly-"

"Beecha, just shut up! We have no time for this! I trust her, so do it!" Snapped the blonde towards the orange-haired junk dealer.

She then looked at Torres, who just nodded, nervously.

"Alright then." Beecha then said, "Prepare to fire the hyper mega particle cannon!"

"Fire…on Moussa." Ple muttered, "He is heading towards Moussa…"

"You heard her!" Elle then shouted, "Fire on that rock now!"

Torres nodded again and introduced some commands on his computer, as the hyper mega particle cannon's coils began to spin, as the cannon began to charge up. The hyper mega particle cannon then fired a long, thick linear beam stream, which reached Moussa and shattered much of its structure with bright explosion.

As the shards of Moussa spread throughout space, a single light came out of the wreckage. Elle and the others sighed in relief as they realized what it was: the ZZ Gundam's Core Fighter. They then saw Judau waving at them from the cockpit's shattered glass.

"It's Judau!" Beecha then shouted. Everyone cheered with joy, with the exception of Ple, who was still exhausted. Ple instead just sighed in relief and gave a small smile.

"Judau…"

Her head then fell to her side, as she slowly succumbed to her exhaustion.

Ple opened her eyes and found herself back in the medical bay. She noticed Judau and Elle besides her. Judau and Elle smiled at the sight of Ple waking up.

"Ple…" Said the brunette, "You're alive…I'm so glad."

Ple smiled back at them, "Judau…"

Judau's eyes began to fill up with tears, and he quickly wiped them off with his right arm. But he couldn't help but to cry even more: he was just too glad at least someone had not died a pointless death. Ple could only stare at Judau, who continued to sob in joy.

"I'm so glad you're okay…" Judau then said, "When the other Ple died." The redhead remember her more bubbly sister…

And that she was the one who took her life back on Earth in the ruins of the colony drop of Dublin, Ireland…

"My sister." Ple Two said in a sad tone, "My sister…"

"It wasn't your fault." replied Judau, "You were under the control of that Glemy guy! You couldn't do anything about it."

"But still…she was my blood. How could I..?"

Elle then patted Judau's back, "Judau, we should leave her alone for a little longer."

Elle then approached Ple and held her hand, "Don't worry about us." she said, "We understand what you went through. For now, just rest, ok?"

Judau and Elle then left, and Ple was once again alone in the medical bay.

Several minutes passed by as Ple stared at the ceiling again, thinking about everything that had happened so far. As she remembered the last time she had seen her 'Master', she heard that distinctive voice that had freed her from the clutches of Glemy Toto.

Turning her head around to find her, she finally saw her: her sister, the one from whose blood she had been born; Elpeo Ple, with her usual, gleeful expression. Ple Two could only stare agape and reached hand towards the spirit of her more bubbly clone.

"Sister…I'm so sorry…"

"Don't be, sister." Elpeo then replied, with her usual smile, "I wish I could've been there for you…for all of you…but now you are the only one that can continue our legacy."

"Our…legacy?" Ple then asked, "How?"

"Live on." Smiled Elpeo, "Live your life to the fullest: cherish every moment…and accomplish your dreams." That gave the more fiery of the clones pause.

Dreams…What dreams? She has nothing now, what could she possibly accomplish? And on top of her acts…Serving Neo-Zeon…Dropping the colony on Earth…

Killing Elpeo…

"But everything I have done…" Ple then said, "I've so much wrong…"

"You must leave that to the past." Replied Elpeo, "You have a whole new life before you. Embrace it and live it to the fullest."

"But…Master is dead." said Ple, "I…We…were created to serve a Master. Without him, I have no purpose left but to…" She was broke off by the rough pat of her head and a giggle. Elpeo's spirit patted her fiery twin's head and still had that bright smile on her visage.

"Don't talk like that!" Elpeo then interrupted her, "I managed to find a purpose in helping Judau: maybe you could find one too!"

Elpeo's "image" then began to fade, and Ple stretched her arm at it, trying to reach her sister.

"Wait! Don't leave me!"

"It's okay my pretty sister." Replied Elpeo with a smile, "I am sure you will make something of your life…something significant…something beautiful…"

"Sister!" Ple then cried as Elpeo's presence finally faded. Closing her fist and slamming it into her bed, Ple began to sob.

"Sister…" she then said, wiping off some tears, "I will do so…I will continue the legacy of the Ple lineage! I will find my purpose in life, just like you did!"

Ple wiped off some more tears, and then enclosed herself in the bed, remaining in fetal position.

_'I will find my purpose, she said, for the sake of all of us…'_

The entire surviving Nahel Argama crew, along with captain Bright Noa and Ple, were at Granada to give their farewells to Judau and Roux, who were going to Jupiter for work.

"Once you reach Jupiter, it's a five-year stay." Beechan told Judau, "Try not to drown in the Helium-3."

Bright then gave a step forward and stretched his hand to Judau, "The Earth should look nice from there."

Judau and Bright stretched hands: both men held deep respect for each other.

Elle then approached Judau, "Take care of Roux, okay Judau?" she said.

"Isn't that supposed to be my role?" Roux then said in a teasing tone, infuriating Elle.

"What did you say?" Elle shouted back. Beecha held her back, "Stop that!" he said, "Are you actually jealous?"

Elle regained her 'composure' and stepped back, "Fine then." she said.

As all of this happened, Sayla Mass, one of Bright's old acquaintances from the One Year War, and Judau's lost sister, Leina, watched on from a balcony above. Leina was conflicted: one part of her wanted Judau to go to Jupiter to have a better life; and another part of her wanted him to stay. Sayla noticed that Leina seemed somewhat down, and patted her in the shoulder, "Once he leaves," Sayla then said, "it will be three years before you can see him. Is that alright with you?"

"Yes." Leina replied, "If he saw me now, my brother would be troubled by second thoughts."

"So that's how it is." said Sayla, "You're underestimating your brother."

The shuttle that took passengers to the Jupitris II was now preparing to launch, and as Judau and Roux began to board it, he noticed Ple among his friends. "Wait for me, Roux." Judau then said, "I'll catch up with you."

Roux simply nodded, a little confused.

Judau approached Ple, somewhat nervous, "Ple…would you like to join us?"

Ple stared at Judau for a moment, "Join you?" she asked, "As in…going to Jupiter with you?"

"Of course." Judau then said, "You can start a whole new life out there. You can leave all of these conflicts behind…"

"Judau, I appreaciate your offer." Ple replied, "But I must respectfully decline."

Judau blinked, "Are you sure?"

"I understand why you are asking me to join you." Ple then said, "However, I want to find my own purpose…my own meaning in life. I must do it on my own."

Judau then gave a half-smile, happy that Ple was seeking peace in her own way, "I'm glad for that." he then said.

He then hugged her, surprising Ple at first; however, she returned the embrace.

"I wish you the best, Ple." said Judau, "I hope you find your purpose and live your life to the fullest."

"And I wish you the best too, Judau." Ple replied. They then stared at each other with a smile, and separated. Judau then headed back towards the shuttle, with Roux waiting for him, impatiently.

"What was that all about?" Roux asked.

"Nothing." Judau replied with a smile, "Just your usual, heartwarming farewell."

"Well, we're already late." Said Roux, "The captain's gonna be pissed."

"I know that." Judau then said as he turned around, looking at his friends for the last time, "But to be honest, it was worth it…"

It had been three days since Judau and the rest of the Nahel Argama crew had left Granada to their own ways. Elle had offered Ple to go with her and live with her for a while, but Ple had declined, citing the same reason she had given to Judau.

And now, she was all alone in a Lunar city, with what little money the crew had been able to give to the Neo Zeon rogue. And since she had been a Neo Zeon, Captain Bright wasn't able to make the Federation Forces give her a pension: if he had even informed them of her existence, they would've most likely arrested her and perhaps even tortured her; perhaps even experimented on her, due to her nature as a Cyber-Newtype, and a clone at that…

Even so, he had managed to give her enough to survive for the next three months, but even that wasn't enough: especially for an 11-year old girl, all alone in an unknown environment.

Granada wasn't a place of opportunities, and nobody would hire a little girl for work. Therefore, the redhead was in a tough position, as she knew that the little money Bright had given her would run out quickly, and unless she got some kind of job, she would become homeless: already had she wandered through the colony, sleeping in cheap hotels.

It was her third day in this military city now, and as she walked by the streets in simple black shorts and a white t-shirt, she saw a diner nearby and decided to go there to get something to eat, as she hadn't been able to get any breakfast. Walking towards the diner, she checked her pocket to see if she had enough cash to buy herself at the very least some toast bread, not noticing a boy. The boy was close to her age, but was a sliver bit taller and had tan skin. In addition, his hair was bone white and had auburn-colored eyes along with a simple gray shirt and khaki shorts. The whitehair walked towards her, also distracted by his own issues in his pocket. Not noticing each other, they suddenly and literally crashed into each other, falling flat in their rears. After shaking their heads a little, they stared at each other for a moment.

"Watch where you're going!" Ple shouted, annoyed, as she stood up. The boy, on the other hand, only stared at Ple. The boy stared at Ple's pretty blue eyes and strawberry red hair and only one thought came to him.

'_I think I'm in love…'_

The boy stood up, with an embarrassed expression, "Sorry." he said in an apologetic tone, "I'm really sorry. I was so distracted…"

"Well, like I said…" she snarled, "Watch where you're going!"

"Alright, alright, cutie!" Ple looked a bit shocked for his last remark, "Don't get so angry! Look, I'll make it up to you…I'll buy you some breakfast. How about that?"

"What the?" The redhead replied, in shock again, "I'm not interested. Now leave me alone!"

Ple started to walk away, but the boy ran towards her and touched her shoulder, prompting Ple to about-face and get his hand off her. "Come on, miss! Name's Naoto Emerson. What your's?"

"What the hell is wrong with you?" she said, completely outraged at his attitude. "Are you some kind of freak?"

"Come on!" Naoto said, still smiling at her, "It's on me, ok?"

Ple again just stared at him, but she couldn't help but admit that not only was she very hungry, but she might actually have a decent breakfast today now that someone else was paying for it. Frankly, she felt cheap, but given her situation, she couldn't help it. She gave a sigh.

"Alright." Ple then said, making the whitehair smile gleefully.

"Great!" he said, and he promptly grabbed her by the arm and took her to the diner, running.

Minutes later, they were both having a very delicious breakfast: fried eggs, several slices of bacon, along with bologna, cheese, and several citric fruits such as oranges, grapefruits, and many types of berries. Naoto had also ordered a coke; Ple, on the other hand, ordered milk, as she hated soft drinks.

As they ate, there was an uncomfortable silence between each other, as Naoto wasn't sure what to tell this pretty girl he had just met, and the Neo Zeon rogue was still mad at him for having been so careless. She was grateful for the delicious breakfast, though.

After finishing one of his eggs, he looked at Ple, who was still visibly annoyed.

"Hey…" he said, in a somewhat nervous tone, "Where do you come from?"

"I'm not from around here." Ple replied in a dry tone. She drank some of her milk and ate one of the berries. Naoto kept staring at her: he had never met a girl his age that was so pretty. Shaking his head a little, he then had a drink from his coke. "So…" he said, "you're from Earth then? Or the colonies?"

"The Asteroid Belt, actually." Ple said, half-lying, again in a dry tone. "My um…parents…they came here for work about a couple of years ago, but they…"

She stopped, staring at her milk: she couldn't help but feel bad; she had never had any parents; the closest thing she had ever had as a father was Glemy Toto, who turned out to have been nothing more than a mass murdering, manipulative warmonger who cared less for her well-being as a horse master would care for an injured horse. Naoto noted her somewhat sad expression, and quickly handed a napkin to her. Ple noticed this and returned to her somewhat cold expression towards him, shaking her head. "I thought you were gonna need one…" Naoto then said, "Anyhow, where are your parents?"

"Dead." Ple responded, again in a dry tone; however, this time, it sounded slightly melancholic, something Naoto noticed.

"Oh…" he muttered sadly, his shoulder's slumping, "Well…I'm sorry…"

"You didn't know. It's not like you killed them or anything."

"Come on, girl!" he replied, sounding a bit hurt. "I was just trying to be nice…" Ple sighed.

"I know. But it never sounds sincere…when someone tells you 'I'm sorry' about one's death."

"Really?" Asked Naoto, intrigued: this girl seemed to be more interesting than what he had thought…

"How is that?" he asked.

"Well…it's not like I've experienced any true sincerity," she said, "to put it in a way…"

"Oh well, I understand." Naoto then said, "My parents were never really close with me, you know? And after they separated, my mother decided to leave me in some orphanage. It was a dump, that place…"

"How so?" Ple asked.

"Well…the people there weren't exactly interested in the children's well-being, to put it in a way…" said Naoto, "So I stayed for a few months, and I got fed up with the place, so I escaped. After that, I met them…" He had a smile on his face as he looked out the window.

"Who is 'them'?" asked Ple, sipping some of her milk.

"The crew of my ship." he then said, "The guys who have taken care of me for basically my entire life."

"They must be nice guys…" Ple muttered. She then shook her head: was she actually being nice to this jerk, who had not only made her fall to the ground, but had actually tried to hit on her immediately afterwards!

Reverting to her somewhat-cold expression, she looked at him, "Well, I'm glad you found people who actually cared for you."

She then took another sip from her milk.

"Speaking of…" Naoto then said in a low voice and rolling his eyes towards Ple, catching her attention again.

"What?" she asked in a dry tone.

"Well…You'll most likely say no, but…would you want to join our ship? We could really use a hand there."

"Your ship? Join the crew? What kind of ship is it?"

"It's a freighter." he said , "What we basically do is collect scrap from space, such as ship wreckage, mobile suit parts, and the like. While I do most of that, it's kinda hard doing it alone, especially when the task is to get several tons for the next day."

"I see…" Ple grabbed another berry: it was interesting, since this could be a chance to get out of this Lunar dump and get some money.

"The ship is quite comfy, actually." Naoto then said, "It's basically the crew's home: we never leave it, other than when we dock and such, you know?"

"Well, it sounds interesting…"

"And the pay is good too. It may vary at times, but it's usually good. We manage pretty well."

"Really? How well?"

"Well, we never run out of the essentials, if that' what you're asking about." He quickly responded, "And everyone gets a good share!"

"Well…Considering that I don't have any choice…"

"Really?" he suddenly exclaimed, almost jumping out of his chair, "You'd really join me?"

"You?" she replied, "Who said it was for you? I'm doing this because I need to survive, you dork!"

"In any case," he said, ignoring her last comment, "I'm really glad you accepted my offer!"

He then looked at her face and closed his eyes and made a grin that would split his face in two, "You're just so cute!"

She arched her eyebrows, annoyed, "Stop it! It's weird!"

Naoto, however, ignored her, and he instead grabbed her by the arm, left what he owed in the counter, and quickly took Ple outside, excited that he had convinced her to go with him.

Ple was frowning: she was actually regretting having come with this kid who had been quite annoying as of now. I hope the pay is good, she thought.

Having reached the docks, they were now facing a large, white-silver colored ship, with an arrow-like shape and five large boosters in its back: in addition, it was also equipped with four wings, and a rotating block. Ple was quite surprised at the sight of it: it was prettier than she had imagined.

Heading to the main hatch door, he opened it and courteously let Ple in. As she entered the ship, she noticed it looked just like any other: it was quite standard, but it was clean enough for her taste. As they both walked through the hallway, Naoto stared at Ple's hair.

'_She's so cute! And that hair makes her so…pretty!'_

Shaking his head for a moment, he then slowed his pace a little, "What's your name, by the way?"

"Ple…" she replied, a little uncomfortable: not because she was giving him his name, but rather, the name itself made her uncomfortable.

"Ple? Just '_Ple_'?"

"Umm…it's actually Ple Two."

"Two, huh?" he replied, "That's odd…"

"Well, if you don't like it," she then said, annoyed and looked away. "Deal with it."

"Fine, fine." Naoto said, apologetic, "It's alright: it's just that I've never heard a number as a last name, that's all…"

Naoto was distracted with his conversation and failed to notice one of their crew members, Steel, a strong, well-muscled, tall dark-haired woman, who was carrying a large box full of ammunition. They both fell down to the floor, and Steel barely managed to avoid from dropping the box. Naoto stared at her, "Steel, watch where you're going!"

'_He has a knack for bumping into others,'_ thought the redhead to herself.

"Oh really?" she replied, standing up. She then looked at Naoto, "Or' you'll what?"

She then started to walk away until she noticed Ple. "And who is this? Naoto, don't tell me you're actually…"

"Come on!" he whined, standing up, "She wants to be part of the crew!"

"A little girl like this? You know the captains had agreed to only let you and their daughter as the only underage people here!"

"Don't forget about Kloah…" Naoto muttered

"He's another matter!" She then got close to Ple's ear, "If I were you," Steel whispered to the Neo Zeon rogue, "I'd keep an eye on him: he's quite the ladies man, if you know what I mean…"

"Steel!" Naoto shouted, hearing Steel's whisper, "Don't feed her with any of those lies!"

"Oh, excuse me, Casanova!" she replied.

"You're being rude!" Naoto then said, "Ple, this is Steel. Steel, Ple…"

"No, no, no, no." Steel then interrupted him, walking away in a quick pace, "Cannot talk: the captain's GM's targeting systems are broken…again!"

She then looked at Naoto straight in the face, "What?" she said, "You think this is a pleasure cruise?"

She then resumed her pace, and Naoto looked at Ple, who had arched her eyebrow a bit. "Don't mind her." he said, "She's an extraordinary woman. Weapons expert. Mechanic too. She is very well educated as well: she's read Shakespeare, Hobbes, Tolkien, Asimov…Normally, she's very good natured…"

He was suddenly interrupted as they heard something crash on the floor. They both turned around to then see Steel throwing her tools and the many contents of the box around, in a fit of rage. "Great!" Steel shouted, "Things aren't bad enough! Shit! Ammo is all over the floor!"

"Fight the good fight, Steel!" Naoto then said, in a teasing tone.

"Damn punk!" Steel then shouted back, pointing one of her tools at him, "I'll kill you!"

She then threw the tool at Naoto, who barely dodged it: however, Naoto didn't change his expression of amusement, "Keep up the good work, Steel!"

Naoto and Ple then made a turn, proceeding towards the bridge, as they heard Steel's complaints in the distance, saying that she had been well educated and that she had wanted to be a writer and a literature teacher.

They finally reached the bridge, where they spotted the two captains: one was an Asian-looking man, black hair, brown eyes and white skin in one chair; in the other, a very beautiful, Eurasian-looking woman blonde platinum hair, very white skin and blue eyes. Ple had to admit that the man was quite handsome, and the woman was very beautiful. The two captains noticed the two children coming into the bridge, and the male captain arched his eyebrow, with a somewhat-amused expression.

"Oh, Naoto…" He said, shaking his head but keeping a smile. "Don't tell me you actually brought a girl here…"

"Cut it out, Captain Shiro." Naoto then said. He then looked at the female captain, "This is…Elise. Elise Gale. She wants to be part of the crew, Captain Aina." The redhead looked at the whitehair in bewilderment.

'_Elise Gale? What the…'_

"Well…She's too young, to be honest," said the dark-haired captain.

"Yes, but there is no harm in having another hand in the ship." The blonde said, smiling at her husband, Shiro, "Besides, it is good for our little daughter, Ruki, to have someone close to her age and of the same gender with her."

"Well…now that you mention it Aina…" Shiro said, smiling back at his wife.

"So, captains?" Naoto then said, "Is she going to be part of the crew?"

"Well, it depends." Shiro then said, looking at Ple, "What do you say, Miss Gale?"

"Well, I could really use the work…And since I have no other place to go…"

"Well, it's settled then!" Naoto interrupted her. He then caught Ple glaring at him with utter rage: and the worst part was that Naoto liked that expression.

'_She's so cute when she's mad!'_

'_Where does he get off!'_

"Well, right now, we don't have any tasks for you yet." Shiro then said, "If you want, Naoto can take you to one of our dorms we have in disuse. We'd only have to clean it up, though…"

"I appreciate it, Captain Amada." Ple then said.

"Alright!" Naoto said, "Let's go!"

Naoto then tried to grab Ple from her arm again, but Ple managed to avoid his grasp, disappointing Naoto a little, "I prefer to walk alone, ok?"

"Fine then…" Naoto said, in a disappointed tone.

They then exited the bridge and proceeded through the hallway again. After a few turns, they reached a door, which Naoto then opened. Inside, Ple saw a comfy-looking bed and a table in the room.

"Nice."

"Glad you liked it." Naoto replied, annoying Ple a little. She entered the room and sat on the bed, trying the couch: it was very comfortable, just like she liked it. "I'll stay." Ple then said.

"Great! If you need anything, call me!"

Ple just glared at Naoto and didn't reply. Naoto didn't mind, for as he soon closed the door behind him, he started jumping in joy, happy that he had finally found _'the love of his life_'. The redhead kept staring at the door and coiled up onto her couch.

"Idiot…"

Another day had passed, and the Vulcan was finally leaving Granada. Leaving the Lunar city behind, the freighter began heading towards Side 4, the ship's most profitable market due to the high use of scrap for recycling, as many factories and companies there used said scrap to create new mobile suit parts and such.

As the Vulcan cruised through space, Shiro looked onto the distant image of Earth, and remembered his days as a soldier in Southeast Asia, and how he met his beautiful wife, Aina. He then wondered how his former comrades, Terry, Karen, Eledore...were all doing. Most likely still bickering over Eledore's failed career in music, he thought, a little amused. One of the bridge's door opened and his little, 10-year old daughter, Ruki, came in along with Aina. "Daddy!" Ruki said, and Shiro hugged his daughter, who threw herself at him. Aina approached him and they both kissed. "So how are things going?" Aina asked, as Ruki went to Derek Marguiles, one of the operators, to see what he was doing.

"So far, nothing new. As usual, although we did get some transmissions from the Federation Network that there had been some fleeting Neo Zeon nearby."

Aina sighed, "Oh well, it's not like the Federation would have actually got them all…"

"Actually," Shiro then said, a little amused again, "it was the AEUG the ones that defeated them. The Feds did little if any of the fighting"

"Huh..Well, it really doesn't matter: we should keep an eye on any remnants. That GM II of yours is seriously a piece of scrap: it broke down just a few days after you '_acquired_' it…"

"Well, it's not my fault the Feddies weren't able to replace their GMs with better units! Although I heard that those new GM IIIs are quite the thing…"

"Captains!" Derek then suddenly said, "You better take a look at this!"

Shiro and Aina approached Derek and looked at the screen, "What is it?"

"Three unidentified units." Derek responded, "One of them is a Neo Zeon Gaza-D mobile suit, but the other two are still unidentifiable…"

"Most likely the Neo Zeon remnants they were talking about." Aina said in a worried tone, "We won't do anything unexpected: if we ignore them, they'll do the same."

The three Neo Zeon mobile suits, a Gaza-D and two gray-colored Dra-Cs, cruised through space, with the Vulcan in the distance. The Gaza-D's mono eye flashed at the sight of the freighter, and waved its arm at its two comrades. They then sped at the Vulcan.

"Oh crap!" Derek said. He pushed a small button, and an alarm started sounding throughout the ship.

"They just had to do it, didn't they?" Shiro commented.

"They must be bitter over their defeat and are lashing out for releasing their frustration." Aina added.

"In that case, we have no choice…"

"Don't you remember? The GM II's weapons don't work!"

"Damn it, you're right!" he said, "Only the beam sabers are usable, right? Even so, I can still manage to…"

"No, Shiro, it's too risky!" she said.

"Don't you remember when we first met?" he then said, "I faced you in a Ball, Aina! This is nothing!"

"And I was using a test Zaku!" Aina then retorted, "Besides, I had been damaged by that pilot, remember?"

"But still…" Shiro then said with gritted teeth.

"No buts!" Aina replied.

The Gaza-D and the Dra-C then began to circle around the Vulcan, like vultures.

Steel quickly ran towards the cargo bay, where the GM II laid motionless. "Damn it!" she shouted, "Of all the times this freaking thing had to stop working!"

She opened the cockpit hatch and turned the monitors on, seeing that the weapons systems were still not working. She slammed her fist on the panel, "Damn it all!"

By now, Ple, who had been sleeping, heard the alarm and got up in the pink pajamas she had inherited from the original Ple. Getting out of her room, she saw Naoto rushing by, in a frantic expression.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"We're under attack!" he replied as he rushed towards the cargo bay, "Neo Zeon!" It gave Ple pause…

"Neo Zeon? What the..?"

She then started to think about what she had to do: she remembered all of the atrocities she had helped the Neo Zeon do during the war; she felt conflicted, as her sisters themselves had been Neo Zeon soldiers, and her 'original' had been born a Zeon as well; even so, they had all been forced into war by said Neo Zeon.

'_What can I do?' _she wondered._ 'Perhaps its time…to atone for our sins…to make my sisters' sacrifices worth something…These people accepted me without questioning my origin…They accepted me without prejudice…'_

She then looked at her pajama, and remembered Elpeo Ple's face: she could hear her say "Follow your heart, sister!"

She turned towards the hallway: she knew what she had to do.

One of the Dra-Cs targeted its Vulcan gun at the ship, and fired a few rounds at it: fortunately, they bounced off, but the crew could still feel the impacts.

Ple came into the bridge, "Captain!" she said ,"Do you have any mobile suits in this heap?"

Shiro arched his eyebrow in confusion, "Well…we have a GM II we got a few days ago…" he said.

Ple quickly turned around and left the bridge. Shiro went after her, "Wait! That mobile suit's lacking any ranged weapons! Besides, do you even know how to pilot one? You don't look older than eleven!"

Ple turned around to look at him. "It's in my blood."

Shiro could look in disbelief as the little girl left off towards the cargo bay.

Ple entered the cargo bay and found the GM II's cockpit hatch open, with that crazy woman Steel banging her fists again and again in frustration, as the GM II's computers seemed to not recognize the beam rifles. "Goddamn Feddie piece of crap!" she shouted, "They waste all of that money for this shit!"

The redhead flew into the cockpit, "Step aside, Miss!" she said.

Steel stared at her in disbelief, "This is no time for games! Get out and find shelter!"

"I can pilot this thing! Please, step aside!"

"You? You're just a little girl!"

"Believe me. I've piloted things much more complicated than this."

"But its systems are incompatible with the beam rifle! You won't make it with beam sabers and Vulcans!"

"As I said," Ple then said with a smirk and determined eyes, "I've piloted much more complicated things than this heap of junk."

Steel stared at her for a moment: this little girl had more confidence than any other person she had ever met; it was somewhat unnatural; the determination she saw in her was warm and convincing.

Steel smirked at Ple, "Girl, I hope you know what you're doing." she said.

"I know what I'm doing."

Steel moved aside and let Ple sit in the linear seat. Ple let herself adjust at this cockpit, and turned all systems on. "Nothing more than a cheap version of my NZ-000." The redhead commented.

Steel caught that last segment, "What?"

"Nothing." Ple quickly replied, "Let me launch now."

"Sure." Steel said, exiting the cockpit as Ple closed the hatch. The fiery clone began familiarizing with the controls, noting their cheap and overall lazy design. "This thing was done at the last minute, wasn't it?"

Steel went to a control panel nearby and pulled a lever, opening the cargo bay. As it opened, Ple saw one of the Dra-Cs pass by. "I see…So it's one of the more veteran units."

Ple turned the GM II's thrusters on and moved out of the cargo bay, struggling at first to keep balance. As soon as she exited, the Gaza-D fired its knuckle buster rifle at her, and Ple managed to evade the shot.

"A Gaza-D? Well, this makes things a little more difficult."

Another Dra-C started firing its Vulcan gun at her, and Ple, already used to the GM II's controls, graciously evaded its shots while firing her own Vulcan guns back. The Dra-C used its shield to block her shots and then deployed its beam saber, speeding towards her. Ple drew one of the beam sabers as she kept firing the Vulcans, eventually running dry of ammunition. She then accelerated at the Dra-C and blocked its beam saber attack with her own. As soon as she clashed with it, she drew her other beam saber and impaled the Dra-C right in its chest. She then kicked it away and evaded another shot from the Gaza-D. The other Dra-C began firing its Vulcan and deployed its beam saber, and Ple accelerated away.

"These guys aren't as good as I had expected. Most likely they were redshirts."

To save energy, she withdrew one of her sabers and repacked it. The Gaza-D fired its missiles at Ple, who dodged each one of them and then charged at the Neo Zeon mobile suit. The Gaza-D fired its beam guns and knuckle buster rifle at her, but Ple just dodged its shots. Unexpectedly, Ple then circled around the Gaza-D and appeared behind it.

"Take this!" she shouted, slashing the knuckle buster off. The Neo Zeon pilot was then caught off-guard as Ple then cut the Gaza-D's limbs off, and then kicked what was left of the torso away. Ple then turned around to see the remaining Dra-C firing its Vulcan at the freighter ship.

"Just one more left." Ple muttered.

Heading back towards the Vulcan, Ple redrew her other beam saber and caught the Dra-C off-guard, and she cut off the large propellant tanks off the antiquated mobile suit. Making it loose balance for a moment, Ple then cut off the Dra-C's arms and then stabbed the main sensors. Kicking the Dra-C's torso away, she then sighed, "It was easier than expected." she said.

Shiro, Aina, their bridge crew and even Ruki, a young girl with Asiatic features and blonde hair, looked in awe at what had just happened. Shiro and Aina wondered who this little girl really was: she couldn't be just any stranded girl.

From another section of the ship, Naoto cheered and jump in joy, "Yay!" he said, "You taught'em, Elise! That's my cutie!"

Steel could only look in awe as well, and she felt that all she could do was salute Ple. "You have my eternal respect, little girl."

As soon as Ple returned to the cargo bay, she found the whole crew cheering and applauding at her. This sight surprised her a little, as she wasn't used to this sort of hailing.

She landed the GM II in the cargo bay, and as soon as she exited the cockpit, she found herself being hugged by Naoto. "Oh, Elise! I knew you were my guardian angel!"

"Not so fast, Naoto!" Said the redhead, pushing him away a little, "I did this for the whole crew, not just you."

"Even so," he said breaking out a grin. "You are the cutest _and_ toughest girl ever!"

"Great job, Ms. Gale!" Shiro then said as he approached them, "Where did you learn to pilot like that?"

"Like I said, captain," she replied, "it's in my blood."

"Well, we could use your skills, Elise." said Shiro, "We could use another scrap collector. And with your skills, I'm sure you'll get the job done in a short time."

Shiro then offered his hand to the small redhead, "Elise Gale, I hereby officially declare you as a member of the Vulcan. Welcome aboard"

Ple smiled and shook his hand, "Thank you, captain. I promise that I will make a great job."

Shiro smiled at this, "Well, I must get back to the bridge. You go relax or acquaint yourself with the ship. You earned it."

Shiro then left, and Naoto followed him. As he left, Naoto waved at Ple with a big smile. Ple couldn't help but feel a little amused. She then turned to look at the stars outside.

'_Well, sister. It looks like I finally found a place. A purpose…'_

Ple Two…No, rather, Elise Gale's journey into becoming a hero had only begun…

**This work will be done while we wait for the 5th Unicorn OVA. If anyone knows about the novels and knows what happens during what is OVA 4, that would be great.**

**Expect to see more UC characters in the future, as we follow Ple Two's journey. And yes, we are using the official name over Puru(as much as I like that name) and it's easier to type, so deal with it.**

**Also, Ple Two's alias as Elise Gale is based off of Dorothy Gale from the Wizard of Oz. Get it? Glemy TOTO and Elise GALE. It's a joke.**


	2. Pirates of the Earth Sphere Part 1

**Pirates of the Earth Sphere**

The _Fegelein_ was a Colony Corporation transport ship, and it was quite outdated: using old-fashioned hydrogen fuel, this ship spent more space on fuel storage rather than actual cargo. In addition, it was slow for space travel, and it would take at least a week-and-a-half to reach the Moon from Earth, if its cargo was light, that is. In addition, it was heavy and incapable of entering the modern docking areas of colonies and such, and its tasks were therefore limited to delivering ore to the Lunar city Von Braun. However, it wasn't just 'ore' what this ship delivered: Anaheim Electronics also had them transport huge amounts of money in secret, so as to avoid Federal taxation and such legal procedures.

As the _Fegelein_ cruised towards the Moon, its captain, Picard, looked at a news broadcast of the recent end of the Neo Zeon War and the execution of at least 800 Neo Zeon members. Picard frowned, "Stupid-ass Feddies." he said, "It's because of crap like that that _we_ get attacked."

The pilot, Dodge, was instead looking at some kind of men's magazine, as he typed a few more commands into the computer. A beep then alerted him that they were close to the Moon, and Picard answered Von Braun's traffic control station. "This is Colony Corporation transport ship _Fegelein_." he reported, "We are now two-thousand kilometers from the Moon. We are preparing for docking."

"Roger that." the control station operator replied, "We will alert the local EFSF to stand down at your approach."

The operator then closed the channel, while Picard laid back and smirked, "This job is so easy."

As he and Dodge rested for a while, one of the alarms suddenly began to sound, causing Dodge to let go off his magazine and Picard to stop his very short rest. "What is it?" he asked. "I don't know." Dodge replied, as he noticed that the ship's sensors were being jammed, "Minovsky particle density is increasing!"

"What the hell?" Picard exclaimed, "Minovsky particles? I thought the Neo Zeon were done by now!"

"Could it be Federation Forces?" Dodge then asked.

"Don't be silly." Picard replied, "They only deploy it in combat operations. Check the visual sensors! Maybe they've picked something up."

Dodge simply nodded and then activated several monitors. Picard and Dodge's expressions turned to utter horror as they saw them: ships, of various classes and origins, all with human bones attached to their hulls and elaborate, one could say disturbing, decorations on them, and chimerical mobile suits escorting them.

It was the Pirates: the competitors and successors of the Cima Fleet; and perhaps the most terrifying thing any space traveler could ever see.

They had no actual designation; they were the typical nightmare of any ship captain; no one knew where they came from or who they were. They were only known as _the_ Pirates.

And even the Neo Zeon feared them.

"Accelerate towards Von Braun at full speed!" Picard shouted, "Launch all the flares you can at once! I don't care if the Feddies find our cash: get them here ASAP!"

Dodge nodded again and began typing commands and pushing buttons in his panel, and three flares were launched from the _Fegelein_. However, the beastly mobile suits continued to approach the ship.

One of them, a Zaku/GM hybrid, with metal spikes on its armor and several human skulls that resembled some twisted form of necklace around the mobile suit's "neck", landed over the ship's hull and deployed its beam saber in the lowest output. It began cutting a small hole in hull, as a small space launch was detached from one of the grotesque ships of the Pirate flotilla, which resembled a very defiled, marred and violated Zanzibar-class ship. The space launch, which was equally grotesque, with a skin-peeled woman's corpse chained in the front, landed in the ship's hull as the Zaku/GM hybrid moved away and started blasting the _Fegelein_'s boosters with its machine gun. From the space launch, men in grotesque space suits covered in blood and spikes protruding from them entered the ship, armed with machetes, cleavers, axes, tomahawks, knives…

To the eyes of many superstitious men, they were devils: they were evil incarnate.

And they were right to see them that way; for it was said that if they boarded your ship, you and your crew members would be raped, skinned, tortured and burned alive.

The fact that they usually never did it in that order made the Pirates more terrifying.

And the fact that it seemed that the Pirates enjoyed these kind of unspeakable acts more than the actual material reward made them even _more_ terrifying to anyone.

To the small crew of the _Fegelein_, all that was left to do was to pray to whatever God they had, and to either take their own lives, or suffer the most hideous, the slowest and most painful death. In this case, no matter how nonsensical it sounded, it was better to _die_ than be _killed_; at least by the Pirates.

* * *

><p>The Vulcan began docking procedures in a certain colony of Side 1, while Ple, using the GM II, began picking scrap around the colony. Alongside her, and much to her chagrin, Naoto, using a recently-bought Petit Mobile Suit, helped her collect some scrap that had once been a proud Musai-class cruiser of the Principality of Zeon military. Ple, or rather, Elise, grabbed a charred armor plate of the Musai wreckage and placed it in a large container nearby. Naoto moved closer to her, "Need any help, Elise?"<p>

"I'm fine." Elise replied, "This is easy for me."

"Sure?" Naoto asked, hoping to get her attention.

"I don't need help, thank you." Elise told him, "If I need any help…"

"…you'll ask me, right?" Naoto completed her sentence.

"No, actually, I was going to say that I was going to ask _the captain_ to help me." said Elise, causing Naoto to feel somewhat depressed.

"You really know how to shoot me down, don't you?" he said.

Elise didn't say anything, and she continued to collect more scrap, grabbing what seemed to be a heavily-deformed Zaku's head and placing it on her container. Ignoring some thoughts about her sisters, she then grabbed some more floating armor plates of the wrecked battle cruiser and continued the same recollecting process again and again. This was easy for Elise, as her experience in piloting allowed her to coordinate her maneuvres with precission and do the job quickly and efficiently. This job also allowed her to keep her mind off a certain thought that had been troubled her for the last days: for some reason, and despite being sure she had seen them all die, Elise seemed to feel some kind of slight, distant, familiar presence. While she wasn't sure, she thought it could be one of her sisters, who could have survived.

However, Elise preferred to not think about it much: perhaps it was just some kind of memory that _felt_ like a presence; or perhaps it was a similar person, and not one of her actual sisters…

Shaking her head, she checked her container and noticed that it was full: her work was done for today. Grabbing the box, she then proceeded towards the colony's docking area, while Naoto placed the last piece of scrap into his container and followed her. As they approached the Vulcan, which had by now docked, Naoto hailed his crush.

"How much did you get?" he asked her.

"About seventy tons of scrap." she dryly responded, "And what about you?"

"…"

"Well," Elise said, "how much?"

"…About twenty tons or so." he admitted, embarrassed: he thought he could impress her with that number, but after she told him how much _she_ had collected, he regretted having asked her. He was pathetic compared to her.

"Nice." she unexpectedly commented, "You're better than I thought."

Naoto had a virtual Glasgow smile in his face of joy: he had been praised by his Elise. _Yay_, he thought, blinking repeatedly. This caught him off-guard, as he bumped into a freighter's rear. While no damage was inflicted to either due to his relatively-slow speed, he still felt a little shaken by the light impact. Elise turned her to see what had happened. "It's nothing." Naoto quickly parleyed before Elise asked anything.

"Watch where you're going, silly." she then told him, "If you had gone faster, you might've exploded with that ship."

Naoto smiled again, "Someone seems a little worried for me."

"Actually, I was worried that our ship's crew would have to pay the damages." she declared.

Naoto hung his head down, again in depression. _Is she doing it on purpose or something?_, he asked himself.

They both then entered the Vulcan's cargo bay and exited their respective suits and headed to the bridge. As they did, there seemed to be some kind of "friendly tension" between them, as Naoto was obviously smitten with Elise, while Elise found Naoto's attitude with her both annoying _and_ amusing at the same time, albeit in a cute way: even she had to admit that she appreciated the things he usually told her once in a while. Even so, she didn't like showing any "weakness", as she put it: she instead wanted to be known as a strong girl and successful one at that; one that never failed.

Arriving at the bridge, they encountered Shiro and the rest of the bridge crew laying back for a while, after what Aina used to call a "long day of hard work".

Shiro noticed his two star pilots coming in and smiled, "So," he started, "how are my two favorite younglings in Earth Sphere doing?"

Naoto smiled at Shiro's remark, "Well, captain Shiro, its not like we _actually_ had the easiest shift today."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I was in my own business, right?" Naoto then began, "And then all of the sudden, Elise here suddenly loses control of her mobile suit."

Elise turned around to look at Naoto, with an expression that could only described as one of mixed of rage, surprise and complete indignation, "Excuse me?"

Naoto seemed amused, but ignored her, "And so she started moving erratically, right?" he continued, "And I was all '_Hey, Elise! Stop moving your suit like an amateur!_'."

Elise felt the urge to grab Naoto and punch him death right there, but restrained herself, thinking that it couldn't get worse…

BUT IT DID.

"And so I rushed towards her." Naoto then said, and he then made a sound as if trying to imitate the distinctive swooshes of mobile suit thrusters, "But I had then noticed that another, larger freighter was nearby, and Elise was going to crash right into it!"

Elise made a muffled gasp, by now completely resolved in giving Naoto a lesson. _Just you wait_, she thought, _As soon as you finish your little fairy tale…_

Naoto then continued his story, saying that he had managed to save Elise "in the nick of time", and how Elise had nearly lost all of her scrap as well.

By now, Elise had had it, and felt like going to Naoto and punching him in the gut: but she knew better than to act aggressively in front of the captain. And so she waited until Shiro dismissed them. As soon as they exited the bridge, however, she slapped Naoto in the back of his head. Holding his head with one hand, Naoto stared at Elise as she graciously floated towards her room, "What was that for?"

Elise turned her head around a little, looking at Naoto, "That's what you get for turning me into the damsel in distress."

Leaving Naoto in a state of shock due to her unexpected violent behavior, Elise headed to her room and tried to lie on the bed as best as she could, since the zero-g environment didn't help much. However, it wasn't a real issue, as she could lie "floating" and sleep; she didn't care.

As Elise slowly fell asleep, she began to hear a distant, familiar voice in her head, calling to her…

* * *

><p>The Earth Federation Forces officers looked in horror at the last video transmission from the <em>Fegelein<em>: before its crew perished, they were able to confirm that the horrible rumours of the existence of the Pirates were true.

This was bad: bad for everyone involved not only in space trade, but in the supposedly-peaceful post-Neo Zeon era. Even though they were only Pirates, the Federation had just come out of two huge conflicts that had severely weakened it, and it couldn't risk getting into yet _another_ crisis. However, the nature of these "Pirates" was disconcerting: from the small glimpses observable before the transmissions were killed off, they could discern the horrible nature of the Pirates.

They did not seem human at all.

One of the officers, Lee Jackson, placed his hand on his chin, "We just finished mopping up the remnants of the Neo Zeon in Lunar space."

"But we still haven't finished rebuilding our fleet yet." another officer, Lane, replied, "And from all we know, the top brass might just view this as an isolated, trifling matter."

"This is the fifth incident in this week." Lee Jackson then said, "And with the military not willing to send any ships out…"

"Well, we must do something." Lane declared.

He placed his hand on his chin, thinking: while the regular military might not participate, perhaps one of the former AEUG units that had recently been integrated into the Federation Forces would…

He headed outside, "I'm calling a certain captain." he then said.

* * *

><p>Like a big family, Shiro, Aina, their little Ruki, Naoto and Elise were having a delicious dinner at one of the colony's restaurants. Being "morning" in the colony, they were all having the breakfast menu, and each had different choices: Shiro had a family tradition, miso soup, steamed rice and some grilled fish; Aina, whose ancestors had been from former Russia, also chose some traditional food from said ancestral homeland, such as blinis, boiled eggs and ham; Ruki tood from both, and since her favorite hobby was to cook with her mother, she would always experiment by combining plates from many backgrounds and see how well they "reacted"; Naoto, on the other hand, had a somewhat-bland choice, as he only chose a cheeseburger and a couple of fried eggs; Elise, on the other hand, having been educated by the Neo Zeon, chose very "high-standing" plates, such as French Toast with some Roast Apples, a plate known as "Eggs Benedict (which are simply poached eggs with ham and a special sauce), and Granola Bread. The rest of the crew was on other errands; Steel was looking for new materials to "weaponize" the ship; Derek was relaxing at the shores of a large lake, and was possibly hooking up with a good-looking girl…<p>

Anyhow, as the crew enjoyed their little week-long "vacation", Naoto tried to take a bite from Elise's plate, hoping to tease her a little and catch her attention: however, as he reached his spoon for some of the egg yolk, she casually grabbed his arms and twisted it a little, while keeping her sight on her food as she had a good full of one of her Roast Apples. Naoto tried again, but Elise simply pushed his arm away, again in the same manner. Frowning, Naoto returned to his own cheeseburger, realizing that he had made one of the _poorest_ decisions in food compared to Elise's.

_If I'll ever make her like me_, he thought, _I should start thinking about what she likes. And she _does_ have an excellent taste in food, by the way…_

"Its quite satisfying to be so well rewarded after a hard day's work, isn't it?" Shiro commented.

"Oh yes it is!" his daughter replied enthusiastically, "Its been some time since we had anything like this!"

"You don't get these kinds of meals often?" Elise then asked.

"Well, we're constantly on the move, for one." Shiro retorted, "And we never usually get _this_ much scrap to sell. We were really lucky to find you, little girl."

He patted with Elise's hair, who smiled in return. Naoto tried to do the same, using his "gratitude" as an excuse, but Elise changed to her usual serious expression and evaded his arm. Naoto frowned again, but kept his cool: he opted to quickly grab one of Elise's French toasts, which he then proceeded to literally _swallow_, without even bothering to bite it, as he was sure Elise would do anything, _anything_, to get it back, even if it was just a sticky paste full of his saliva. Infuriated, Elise proceeded to throw a little yolk in his hair, ruining it. "What the..?" he muttered, using a finger to take some of sticky, almost dry yolk in his hair, looking in utter horror as his "perfect" hair was now ruined. RUINED.

"That should teach you a little more respect." Elise said, sipping a little of her milk. Naoto, however, could only stare at her with a mixed expression of disbelief and, as ridiculous as it sounded, _admiration_. Whether it sounded appropriate for his age or not, Naoto seemed to be some kind of masochist: he enjoyed, or perhaps simply found Elise cute, when she became aggressive with him. That was the whole point of his teasing and bothering her: to get her aggressive with him and enjoy her "cute" expressions and the like.

"Knock it off, both of you." Aina then said, "Naoto, go wipe that off in the bathroom. Elise, I want you to come with me and Ruki."

"Where to?" Elise asked in return, as Naoto left off to the bathroom.

"It's a 'girls' thing'." Aina replied, "Something you and Ruki need. Since we can afford it, I thought I could take this opportunity and give you a little surprise."

* * *

><p>The <em>Mustache<em> had been part of the Federation's Task Force Alpha, which had fought against several Titans-loyalists during the first half of the Neo Zeon War. Along with its sister ship, the _Pegasus III_, it had been severely damaged and therefore not seen action during the conflict. However, these two ships had been now repaired and, with a new compliment of mobile suits, the _Mustache_ had now been assigned to hunt down these "pirates". Its new captain, Francis T. Kirk, however, was not amused: he was more eager to hunt down Neo Zeon remnants than to be handling some pesky space bandits. In his mind, all of these rumors about "cannibalism" and "savagery" were a bunch of crap, and all of this was just a show for the new Federation administration.

The _Mustache_ was being escorted by six _Salamis Kai_-class cruisers, supported by three _Colombus Kai_-class transport ships and two _Magellan Kai_-class battleships. For Kirk, this was an exaggeration that, again, was just for show.

"The _Salamis Kai-_class cruiser _Hohenzollern_ will take point and launch two EWAC-type Neros." one of the operators reported, "They will reach delivery point in twenty minutes."

"The ship's visual and thermal sensors haven't picked anything out of the ordinary." Another operator said, "Only two civilian shuttles and one of those isolated patrols from Lunar Headquarters."

"Which is it?" Kirk asked.  
>"It is an EFSF patrol fighter. A Wivern-type."<p>

"If we need any assistance, make sure to call for it."

The ships continued to advance slowly, as the _Hohenzollern_ launched two EWAC Neros in consecutive order. Unlike most mobile suits, these units were operated by two pilots: one to handle the suit itself, and other to operate the large radar and various sensors installed in the specialized reconnaissance unit. Although they _were_ capable of carrying weapons, the EWAC Neros were not intended for combat, and as such, were never equipped with even beam sabers.

Fatal mistake.

While the fleet lagged behind, the EWAC Neros advanced several thousand kilometers forward and scanned their surroundings, while deploying their Remotely Piloted Vehicles (RPVs), which were wired cameras that fed information to the suit's hard drive and the pilot's HUD. As they did, one of the EWAC Neros' pilots noticed a black mass in the distance. Using one of the RPVs, he zoomed in, but even with the cameras focused on the object could he really discern what it was, or how it really looked like.

"Sir, I think I found something." the EWAC Nero's operator said.

"What'cha got?" his companion asked.

"I can't say…Looks like some kind of ship, perhaps?"

"Well, you're the one looking at it. Unit 2, you see it?"

"Affirmative. We can't discern what it really is, but judging from its speed, its most likely a ship." The other piloted retorted.

"We'll approach carefully, just in case." The pilot of Unit 1 said, "If there's any trouble, we bail out."

The two units then slowly approached the large, unidentified object, as the pilots deployed all of their RPVs to begin scanning the object. Switching their view to infrared, the pilots saw, to their horror, that there were half-fleshed corpses over what was clearly a defiled, deformed _Zanzibar_-class cruiser with disturbing markings.

"Umm…_Mustache_…" the pilot of Unit 1 muttered, with a clear tremor in his voice.

"What is it, Unit 1?"

"We've established contact…"

"Hey, what is that mobile suit?" Unit 1's exclaimed.

The main pilot turned towards his right and saw how what could only be described as a Zaku/GM hybrid unit approached them in full speed, with a heat hawk that had several human bones decorated in its hilt. Lunging at them, the Zaku/GM hybrid cut off Unit 2's arms off and them stuck the heat hawk's blade right in its thrusters, immobilizing it. Two more units, a Gelgoog/Acguy hybrid and a Gaza-C-looking unit appeared out of nowhere and fired several jet claws at Units 1 and 2. Unit 1 managed to evade them, but Unit 2 wasn't so lucky, and as soon as it was caught by the claws, the terrifying mobile suits started pulling Unit 2 towards the equally terrifying ship, with the yells of terror from the pilots resonating in Unit 1's cockpit and the _Mustache_'s bridge.

"Release the data pods!" Unit 1's pilot commanded.

"But…"

"Do it now!

"Roger!" the sensor operator complied, pulling a small lever. This action then caused two small, spherical-shaped pods to be released from the EWAC Nero's backpack, which then started floating through the vaccum of space. The Federation pilots then tried to veer towards the fleet, but were then confronted by another Gelgoog/Acguy hybrid, which deployed what appeared to be claws in its hands and slam them right into the Nero's head. "This is Unit 1! Requesting reinforcements!" the pilot yelled.

"Reinforcements on the way!" one of the _Mustache_'s pilots replied, as two GM IIIs and the Wivern fighter nearby headed towards the small battle. As this happened, the EWAC Nero pilot tried to kick the Gelgoog/Acguy hybrid off, but this hideous mobile suit deployed a beam saber from its hand and began to cut the EWAC Nero's cockpit off from the mobile suit's frame.

"Hurry, _Mustache_! Hurry!"

The friendly units were late, however, as the pirate mobile suit finished cutting the cockpit off and then began flying away towards its mothership. The Wivern fighter had managed to just reach them and began firing its 60 mm Vulcan guns at the enemy mobile suits, but the Zaku/GM hybrid deployed a large, arm-mounted, tri-barreled retractable autocannon and blasted a dozen holes into the large fighter, which wreckage then spun through the vaccum of space. The pirate mobile suits then began to retreat towards their ship, which itself then moved away from the airspace.

Kirk frowned and looked at the scene with distaste: he had been wrong all along; these "pirates" were a true threat. What disturbed him more was the fact that the pilots had been taken alive; to Kirks, only God knew just _what_ the poor pilots would have to suffer.

Now it was a matter of rethinking their strategy and being as aggressive as possible with these "pirates".

* * *

><p><em>I love you, Aina Amada<em>, Elise thought as she was given a toe nail polish in a salon. Ruki and Aina were also getting the same treatment, and were equally enjoying it. In addition to this, the girls had received a relaxing massage and a hair treatment. Like Aina had said, this was a _girls' thing_.

After the nail polish, the women got a facial treatment, which was literal heaven for Elise, as she had never actually had one in her life.

After this, the girls then went shopping, with Ruki and Elise getting "girly" stuff for themselves, mostly clothes, but also a few other things. Of course, Aina had to always check their activities, in case they suddenly decided to buy anything _too_ expensive.

"Nice!" Ruki yelled as she saw the dress Elise had chosen for her, a green-colored, long dress with a loose, long tube skirt. "Mommy, can I have this?" Ruki asked her mother enthusiastically. Aina looked at the dress for a moment, and gave a little smile, "Well, it does look good on good. And the color is pretty too."

"Thank you!" Ruki then grabbed the dress from Elise's arms and then hugged her mother, who hugged her back. Aina turned to the fiery redhead, "And what did you pick?"

"Nothing really significant." Elise replied, "Just a couple of nice-looking blouses. How about you, Miss Aina?"

"I already have enough dresses of my own." She said, as she looked at her small watch in her wrist, "Its time we went back to the ship. My husband must be a little impatient."

The three girls then exited the mall they were in, when Elise suddenly felt something: it was the familiar sense of danger. She turned to look towards one of the large glass panes high above, through which one could barely see the stars.

_Something is approaching_, she thought, _I can feel it…_

* * *

><p>It was a chaotic sight near Lunar airspace: the Federation flotilla was struggling to keep its ferocious attackers at bay, as waves and waves of hideous and terrifying mobile suits just kept attacking their ships. Four of the <em>Salamis Kai<em>-class cruisers had already been sunken, and many mobile suits had been lost. Kirk recoiled at the sight of one of the GM/Zaku hybrids. One of their beam guns tried to shoot it down, but the pirate pilot was too skilled, as he evaded every single shot. The GM/Zaku hybrid then fired a full burst of its machine gun and destroyed the beam turret. A Nero mobile suit moved in and tried to shoot the GM/Zaku hybrid with its beam rifle, firing continuous streams of beams at it. The pirate pilot seemed to be an ace, however, as he evaded every single shot and then fired his own beam rifle at the Nero, managing to cut off the Feddie mobile suit's right arm along with its beam rifle. The Nero pilot tried to fly away for a moment, but the pirate managed to reach him and proceeded to draw a heat hawk. The Nero pilot could only scream in terror as the pirate severed the Nero's head off, and then proceeded to cut off the left arm of his mobile suit.

"Requesting assistance!" the Feddie pilot shouted through his comm, but it was already too late, as the pirate deployed a jet claw from his right forearm and proceeded to pull the Nero back towards the huge Pirate Fleet. As this happened, several GM IIIs were desperately trying to defend the other _Salamis Kai_, _Columbus Kai_ and _Magellan Kai_ ships alongside several Nero-types and even some C-type Ball mobile pods. Some support Wivern and Queenbee fighters tried to cover their respective ships and allies from the pirate onslaught, which seemed to be more willing to capture their enemies alive rather than to kill them: in fact, those lifeboats from the destroyed _Salamis Kai_ cruisers had been captured by these pirates and taken to whatever fates the pirates had prepared for them. The _Mustache_ deployed two Daggerfish fighters, but these were immediately captured by two Juagg/Hizack hybrids. Two GM III pilots tried to rescue these fighters, but one of the captors fired his Vulcan cannons and destroyed one of the GM IIIs and damaged the other. Taking this advantage, this Juagg/Hizack fired a jet anchor and proceeded to pull the GM III towards the Pirate Fleet.

Kirk was completely grim by now, desperate to resolve this once and for all: his head would be on a plate if he didn't do so. But they had lost too much, and with many of their ships already heavily damaged and having lost several of their support cruisers, the fleet wouldn't be able to give a good fight. He had only one choice.

"Contact all ships and mobile suits!" he barked, "We are retreating!"

"Retreating, sir?" one of the operators asked.

"At this rate, we will all get destroyed." Kirk replied, "We must retreat to the nearest safe zone at once."

"Sir, there is a colony nearby. We could dock there and rendezvous with reinforcements after we resupply."

"Nice idea." Kirk said, "We must first cover our friendlies. What colony is this again?"

"Its right outside Side 4, sir."

"Prepare the high mega-particle cannon. We'll fire a burst to allow the _Bremen_ and the _Takato_ to retreat alongside the others. Tell the mobile suits to get clear. The _Magellan Kai_-classes will also fire their mega-particle cannons as well to support us."

"Roger!" the operator replied to this command.

And so, as the mobile suits began to scatter to then begin to retreat to their respective ships, the _Magellan Kai_-classes moved to align themselves perpendicularly with the _Mustache_, turning their big mega-particle cannon turrets towards the large Pirate Fleet. As no friendlies were in the way, the operator began a countdown, while their pirate enemies began to close in.

"Five, four, three, two, one…"

"Fire!" Kirk then commanded.

As soon as he did, the _Mustache_ fired its side-mounted mega-particle cannon, while the _Magellan Kai_-class battles ships by its sides, the _Windsor_ and the _Terrence_ fired all of their beam guns and mega-particle cannons in unison. The beams grazed and/or pierced several Pirate mobile suits, causing them to explode. The beams continued their way and then managed to hit three pirate ships, two that resembled disfigured _Salamis_/_Chivvay_ hybrid cruisers and a defiled, blood-stained _Zanzibar_-class, with a disturbing symbol on its deck. While _Salamis_/_Chivvay_ hybrids were destroyed, the _Zanzibar_ seemed to have a strong anti-beam coating throughout its hull, and only scorches were visilble in the impact spots.

"What the…?" Kirk muttered, in disbelief.

"Fleet has successfully exited the battlefield." One of the operators then reported, "The _Bremen_ and the _Takato_ are heavily damaged, but they've rendezvoused with the rest of fleet."

"_Mustache_ and companion ships will follow suit." Kirk then commanded, "Launch all of our flares. That should buy us a little time…"

The Federation fleet proceeded towards Side 4, heavily battered, and not noticing that single, horribly decorated Zaku Reconnaissance Type used a small asteroid to cloak itself and follow them…

* * *

><p>Shiro and Naoto were at one of the colony's war museums, looking at the different mobile suits by the Zeon, AEUG, Federation, and the like, throughout the last ten years. Shiro would ocassionally go back to his days as a Federation mobile suit pilot in Southeast Asia, and remembered his comrades, Terry, Karen, Eledore, and even that local girl, Kiki, who helped a lot throughout their missions.<p>

Naoto, on the other hand, was focusing his attention at the many Zeonic mobile suits, like the many Zaku-types and several Dom-types. He then found the large holographic recreation of the AMX-002 (AMA-X2) Neue Ziel, which he immediately recognized as the unit piloted by no other than the _Nightmare of Solomon_ himself.

Naoto's views on the whole Federation/Zeon conflict were overall neutral; in fact, he was actually quite cynical with both of them when it came to "reasons". On one hand, he viewed the Federation as overall corrupt, but salvageable; on the other hand, he understood why there were people who believed in Zeon, but just couldn't fathom why they would kill so many of their own people, the Spacenoids, in colony gassings and biological attacks.

_Then again_, he thought, _the ones ruling Zeon back then were the Zabis…_

Naoto despised the Zabis: even though he hadn't lived the horrors of the One Year War, one of the many reasons his parents had left him was due to the post-War poverty that had ensued. It hadn't been the Federation who attacked first: rather, it had been the Zeon, during the infamous and devastating "One Week War".

The War had been caused by the Zabis: had it not been for their fanatical desire to rule the Earth Sphere, none of the recent tragedies would have occurred. And great men he respected, like Anavel Gato, the "Nightmare of Solomon", wouldn't have wasted their lives like they did.

_I'm thinking too melodramatically_, Naoto then thought, _I should instead be thinking about making Elise like me better. I've been a little too teasing with her. Perhaps I should be nicer?_

Shiro noticed Naoto trailing off, "Hey, Naoto! It's time to go!"

Naoto heard him, "I'll be right there!"

Shiro left the museum and went to see the local newspaper, while Naoto went to look at another holographic image: this time, it was one of the first Federation mobile suits, the RX-78-2 Gundam. A legendary combat machine, the Gundam was piloted by the equally-legendary ace, Amuro Ray, who had, in less than four months, perhaps surpassed pilots with even greater experience than himself, such as the equally legendary (but highly infamous) Red Comet, Char Aznable.

_I want to be like him_, Naoto thought, _Like the great ace of the One Year War, Amuro Ray. Someone who believes in himself and that for which he fights for. I want to be hero…for Elise_.

Shiro noticed Naoto distracted again, and approached him, "Is something wrong?"

"Oh, its nothing…"

Shiro then noticed the holographic image of the Gundam, and smirked, "You know, I used to pilot one of those back in the One Year War."

Naoto turned to Shiro, surprised, "Really?"

"Yeah, down on Earth. Of course, _our_ units would never compare with the original one, but they were still Gundams."

"You fought for the Federation, then?" Naoto asked, curious.

"Yeah, for about four months or so." Shiro responded, "Actually, it must've been less, but anyway, I grew a little…disillusioned with them, and that's how I ended like this."

He then pointed at his left leg, and pulled the sleeve of his pants up, revealing a metal prosthetic arm. Naoto looked at it, "That's how you lost your leg? Fighting the Zeon?"

"You could say that." Shiro then said.

"I didn't know any of that…" Naoto muttered.

"Its better to leave that to the past." Shiro then declared, "Besides, I'm honestly better off with you guys and Aina than I ever was with the Federation Forces."

A little moment of silence. Both went into their own thoughts, and then started walking towards the space gate. As they did, Naoto began to again think about his desire of being a hero…

* * *

><p>The Federation flotilla had just begun docking its ships in the colony, and their crews and pilots seemed exhausted and shocked due to the previous battle. Their ships battered, their mobile suits damaged, the Federation Forces sent to deal with what was at first thought of as a simple band of space bandits would then be forced to face a fight that quickly turned into a one-sided massacre. Kirk came out of the damaged <em>Mustache<em>, as the local governor, Wallace, came to receive him and the other EFF captains. "What brings you here, captain Kirk?" the governor inquired. One of his aides, a bureaucrat known by the name of Valerian, immediately drew out some papers, "You know this will cost you, captain?"

"Leave that to the high brass." Kirk said, "We need to get our ships repaired ASAP. The enemy might attack this colony at any moment…"

"Enemy?" the governor was confused, "What enemy? Weren't the Neo Zeon defeated? Unless there are still stragglers out there! This is all because you people in the military just can't seem to…"

"Oh, give me a break!" Kirk shouted back, "Its all because of _you_ people who get in our way with all of your costs and complains that _we_ aren't allowed to do our job properly! Do you know who's chasing us? Its not the Zekes: its freaking _space bandits_! Not some professional army, but a band of cannibals!"

"Regardless," the governor continued, yawning, "I want you out of here in an hour at least. I don't want the citizens of our peaceful colony all distressed just because some fleet decided to use our space dock as some kind of heaven from 'space bandits'."

"When those suckers come here, you will regret it." Kirk then said in a menacing tone. He then promptly turned around and returned to his ship, leaving the two local politicians on their own.

* * *

><p>Ple lied in her bed, trying to rest, but that uneasiness she had felt earlier just wouldn't let her. She held her late sister's teddy bear tightly, trying to get some peace of mind. Closing her eyes at last, she started thinking about the great time she had spent with her new "family". As she did, however, that ominous feeling began to grow in her mind: it felt similar to when Judau was trapped in Moussa, which felt like it had been an eternity ago by now…<p>

Still feeling uneasy, she went out of her bed and "floated" outside towards the ship's container, hoping to get some peace of mind. Moving through the corridors of the ship, she saw Steel right in the middle of the large "hall", floating and snoring in her own, deep sleep, with her arms crossed and a tool in her right hand. Smiling, Elise, avoided interrupting Steel's sleep and continued on her way. Afterwards, she went towards the cargo bay, and stared at the mobile suits held in storage there, thinking. _That feeling from before_, she thought, _was it dread? Or is it just my nerves?_

Elise sighed: she was worrying too much; she was overthinking stuff up. She had left all of that behind: now she was with a new, peaceful family. There was no way she would have to face those things again…right?

Right?

She heard someone approaching: it was the captain, Shiro Amada. He smiled at her, "Hello, Elise! Can't sleep either, huh?"

"Captain." She replied with a nod, "I didn't feel like it. Not yet, at least."

"Space doesn't let one sleep at times." Shiro commented, "Not even when one's in the safety of the colonies."

"You think they're safe, Captain?" Elise then asked him, "Colonies aren't as peaceful as they seem."

Shiro seemed a little distressed by this last comment, remembering what had happened ten years ago at his home colony in Side 2, which had been gassed by the Zeon Space Marine Corps to then be dropped on Earth. _Indeed_, he concurred in his mind, _colonies are as dangerous as they are wondrous_.

"Well, I'll give you that." He told her, "But right now, I feel like I could relax for the rest of my life."

"You're not from Earth, captain?"

"Nay, I'm from Side 2." Shiro replied.

There was a moment of silence. Distant noises of machinery could be heard, from the docks outside. Even the sounds of machinery were peaceful to Elise: for some reason, they gave her a sense of her surroundings being in order.

* * *

><p>The Colony Corporation's <em>Monet<em> shuttle cruised right outside of the colony's airspace, inspecting a good stable gravity spot for any new colony. One of the Federation flotilla's _Magellan Kai_-class battleships, the _Takato_, scouted nearby, its weapons now fully repaired. A standard Nero mobile suit escorted the battleship, its pilot using the machine's sensors to pick up anything that would close into the colony's airspace. The pilot, however, failed to notice a large asteroid that seemed to drift near the colony. Focusing on the obvious route the pirates would take, the pilot instead saw a distant flash, and tried to focus his visual sensors on the spot. However, they picked nothing. The _Takato_'s guns seemed to aim from one place to another, as if searching for targets. The asteroid suddenly "popped", and several hideous mobile suits, which resembled bastardized GMs and Zakus, drifted from what had been the interiod of the dummy asteroid. Along with them, a large cruiser, resembling a _Zanzibar_-class ship of the old Principality, rotated and drifted along with them. Suddenly, the mobile suits' sensors lighted up, and the mono-eye sensors in their heads and shoulders. Some of the sensors focused on the battleship, Nero and the shuttle in the distance, and slowly and silently proceeded towards them. As they reached a certain distance, the mobile suits began their assault: the two Zaku-look-alikes aimed their beam rifles at the Nero, vaporizing the cockpit before the pilot even knew what was happening. The GM-like mobile suit moved towards the _Takato_, whose underbelly guns began to fire desperate volleys of beams against it. The GM, however, dodged the attacks, and drew its heat rod. The CIWS machine guns, beam guns and turrets tried to shoot the GM down, but the barbaric pilot deployed a heavy shield and used it to block most of the shots, which bounced off it. The pilot then lunged at the _Takato_'s underbelly bridge, stabbing it with its heat rod and then sadistically slashing at both sides with it, melting all crew members in it alive. The _Takato_'s catapults launched another Nero, which immediately proceeded to fire its beam rifle at one of the Zakus, landing a hit in its cockpit and putting an end to the foul existence of its pilot. The other Zaku, however, fired a wire-gun, with a medium-sized harken in the end, stabbing the Nero right in the cockpit. The Zaku then retracted the wire back, closing the Nero towards it, while the pilot deployed a heat rod. The Nero pilot was powerless, as the pirate slowly and sadistically sliced the Nero's torso in half, burning the pilot alive in the process. As this happened, the GM then reached the _Takato_'s bridge and proceeded to slam it with its hands, crushing the crew and leaving the rest of the ship commanderless.

* * *

><p>Elise felt the familiar sting in her head: she was right, there <em>was<em> something approaching. Or rather, it had already reached them. She turned to Shiro, "Captain, I think we must leave at once."

"What makes you say that?" he asked her, curious.

"Something is coming." She replied.

As he was about to ask her what it was, they suddenly felt a huge shake, causing them to loose grip and "float" towards the ceiling.

"What the hell?" he exclaimed, "An explosion?"

An air raid alarm began to sound outside, and the two went to the bridge, where they found Derek typing commands and listening to transmissions intently. "What's wrong?" Shiro asked him.

"There seems to be some kind of battle outside." Derek told him, "Someone's attacking the colony."

"For the love of…Doesn't that get old by now? I mean, it always starts like that…"

"There seems to have been a Feddie flotilla docked here." Derek then said, "They're currently deploying as we speak."

Shiro frowned, "What the hell are they doing here?"

"Seems they were on a special mission." Derek replied, "Most likely in pursuit of Neo Zeon remnants. That's my best conjecture, captain."

"Well, then." Shiro mused, placing his hand on his chin, "Tell Steel to prepare our mobile suits and get that turret of her ready. And get your sidearms on the ready too!"

"Understood." Derek barked back, and he immediately sounded the ship's alarm, while giving the commands through the microphone to the rest of the ship.

Shiro turned to Elise, "I'm not comfortable with the idea, but we will need your skills."

Elise gave a slight smile back, "I was wondering when you were going to ask, captain."

"I'm sorry." He told her.

"There's no need to be." She then said, "Remember what I told you last time? It's in my blood."

She then promptly left the bridge, and Derek stared at her for a moment, and then turned to Shiro, "What's up with her?"

"Don't know. I think her background isn't what she told us…"

"A runaway?"

"Who knows." Shiro then said, "Right now, we must focus on the problem at hand."

The _Vulcan_'s wings were released from the dock's automated constraints and fired its thrusters to the minimal level, as several other ships nearby began to do the same, heeding the colony's evacuation order. Steel, using a normal suit, went to the top of the ship and placed a gatling gun as a turret. She opened her comm, which was directly linked to the ship's bridge, "What kind of suckers are we facing now? Zekes again?"

"Derek thinks so, but we're not sure yet." Shiro replied, "Just stand by and target anything that doesn't look friendly."

"Understood, captain." She then prepared the aiming reticules and looked around. The ship began to exit the docking bay, and Steel saw the many Federation ships doing the same, coming out of the colony in unison, in a coordinated and ordinated manner. "Captain!" Steel called, "We got Feddie ships at our four!"

"I'm aware of that, Steel." Shiro replied calmly, "They might come in handy to cover our retreat."

* * *

><p>Kirk looked grimly at the scene before him: the wreckage of the <em>Takato<em>, the _Monet_ and the two Neros were a constant reminder of the unexpected horror of these "pirates". _We should alert our headquarters at Von Braun and ask them for reinforcements_, he thought, _They might send an entire fleet_.

"Captain!" one of the operators then barked, "Mobile suits are ready for launch!"

"Then launch them all!" Kirk barked back, "We'll need all of the fighting streghth we have available! Prepare mega particle cannons, turrets and CIWS! Get the high mega particle cannon on standby as well!"

"Aye, sir!"  
>Before the Federation Fleet, a rival force of thirty ships, decorated with human bones and blood on the hulls and disturbing symbols accompanying them. Along with them, the double of the number of mobile suits escorting the pirate fleet charged immediately towards the Federation. "Fire all weapons!" Kirk shouted. The <em>Mustache<em> and the other Federation ships fired their beam weapons in unison, hitting a couple of pirate cruisers and shooting down several mobile suits. ""Fire high mega particle cannon at once!" Kirk then barked.

The _Mustache_ then fired its side-mounted weapon, destroying one of the bigger ships of the pirate fleet and grazing a GM-like mobile suit, melting much of its armor and exposing its naked pilot to the vaccum of space.

However, this wasn't enough: the pirates just kept coming, and the pirate ships seemed to generate dozens of more mobile suits by the minute. The Federation Neros, GM IIIs, Noveaus, EWAC Neros, GM IIs and fighters charged at the enemies, firing their beam rifles, machine guns, and missiles and with beam sabers drawn. One of the GM III Noveaus sliced a GM/Zaku hybrid horizontally in half, vaporizing its pilot, which wailed savagely like some mindless animal. The GM III Noveau pilot looked on. _One down, a billion more to go_, he thought. He then moved deeper into the enemy's ranks, firing his beam rifle right into one of the pirate ships' engines, causing them to overload and explode in a huge, nuclear fireball, engulfing three pirate mobile suits and damaging another of the pirate cruisers.

Shiro looked at the battle grimly: the Feddie may have the better equipment, but it seemed as if these pirates were more like mass murderers, trying to focus their attention on the civilian ships. He saw in despair as one of the _Salamis Kai_-class cruisers were ripped to shreds, and its crew taken alive by several mobile suits back to the pirate flotilla.

"They tend to take more prisoners, it seems." He deduced, "What for?"

One of the hideous mobile suits, what seemed to be a Z'Gok/Hizack hybrid, approached them at full speed. "Evasive maneuvres!" Shiro barked, "Have Steele fire her turret at once! Tell Aina, Elise and Naoto to launch in their units!"

"Sir, Miss Aina and Naoto will be using Junior Mobile Suits!" Derek then replied, "Is it wise?"

"Aina and Naoto will help Steel in the immediate defense of the ship with the linear guns." Shiro then said, "Elise will intercept any intruders!"

"Roger that, sir!"

Derek then began to bark these orders to the pilots.

Elise prepared herself in the mobile suit, her cockpit open, as one of the ship's technicians, Kloah Karma, began loading at least a dozen of hard drives into the cockpit. "What are those?" she asked. He smiled at her, "Well, Naoto told me to make sure your suit was as safe as possible, and so I brought the best software I could come up with."

"What kind of software?" she became intrigued.

"Some stuff I got from a tour we had on Pezun a few months ago." Kloah then grinned.

"Pezun?" Elise retorted, a little confused: back in her days in Axis, she had heard about a rebellion in a Federation Base called Pezun, which had been quelled, almost immediately after the end of the Gryps Conflict.

"Yeah, we were barely able to salvage anything really useful from the wreckage of that place." Kloah then told her, "But we _did_ find an intact computer frame. In it, I found several MS Test Simulation data files that I myself modified, turning them into auxiliary programs to boost your piloting performance."

"Thanks, Kloah." Elise smiled at him. As Kloah finished installing the remaining programs, Elise looked at Naoto's Junior MS and gave a half-smile. She appreciated this kind of help from him: in fact, if he weren't such a dork, she might have actually found him cute.

Then again, Elise was never truly sure of her own feelings…

"Tell those civilians to move out of this area now!" Kirk barked, "Unless they want to be caught by our crossfire!"

"Sir, new contacts at forty-thousand!" one of the operators then shouted at him, "They're three: two mobile armor-like units and what appears to be a high-speed mobile suit!"

"Are they pirates?"

"Can't confirm that, captain." The operator then frowned, and Kirk frowned as well. _If they're pirates, then we're screwed: our pilots can barely hold up against the ones we're facing now_.

He then looked as several civilian ships and shuttles attempted to flee the area, and then stared in horror as a civilian shuttle was caught by one of the pirate mobile suits and taken to the terrifying-looking flotilla.

"Captain, a message from one of the civilian ships!" the operator then said.

"Leave it for tomorrow." Kirk replied, "I can't bother with what some bureaucreat has to say."

"Sir, they're saying they'll assist!"

"What?" Kirk then arched an eyebrow, "What good will civilians do here?"

He then saw the _Vulcan_ deploy two Junior Mobile Suits and a GM II.

"A GM?" Kirk then wondered to himself, "These guys must've stolen, no doubt."

* * *

><p>Antonio McKay was a cocky, elitist and excellent pilot of the Earth Federation Forces: he alone had shot down six Zssas mobile suits of Neo Zeon in the war only a few months ago. As a result, he had been issued a Zeta Plus C1 unit, which allowed him to show off his skills to his comrades, who piloted mere Neros and GM IIIs. He had wanted to pilot one of Anaheim's S Gundam units that were in storage, but the current chairman of that company, Melanie Hue Carbine, had refused to give any of these units to anyone after the New Desides rebellion. Of course, this wasn't a problem for McKay: a C1-type was enough for him.<p>

Had his mobile suit not malfunctioned in the nick of time, however, he might've been caught in the initial onslaught. He was thankful to whatever God that allowed him to wait for the right time and make minced meat of these so-called "Pirates."

Now, he was ready at the launch catapult, inside the Zeta Plus C1, which was in waverider mode, along with his four buddies in GM IIIs, who were also prepping for intense combat. Antonio was confident he and his buddies would easily take these "pirates" down by themselves: it was just a simple fact of life.

After two of his buddies launched, McKay himself forced the catapult to push him, firing his thrusters for immediate acceleration. As he exited the hangar, he saw that what had started as a simple skirmish had turned into a bloody, heavy battle between the Federation Forces and the pirates.

"I'll take point." McKay told his buddies by the comm, "I'll take out their ships, and you take out any stragglers left behind."

"Aye, sir."

"Here we go, then!" he vigorously exclaimed, firing his thrusters to the max, firing his beam smart gun straight through four Zaku look-alikes, and hitting the engines of one of the pirate cruisers, causing it to overload and explode, taking two more grotesque mobile suits with it. As soon as he did this, he fired his twin beam cannons and hit a Zaku/GM hybrid, destroying it. A Gouf/Juagg hybrid then approached him at full speed and fired at him, forcing McKay to turn around, the G-forces' strain hurting him somewhat hard.

"You fuckers…" he muttered, "This is nothing!"

He transformed into MS in a flash, drawing a beam saber, and bisected the horrid mobile suit horizontally by the cockpit.

Nearby, his buddies fired their beam rifles, expertly dodging their enemies' attacks and then shooting more pirates down.

As soon as McKay took out another pirate down, he charged his beam smart gun and fired at another cruiser, this one resembling a bastardized _Salamis_-class cruiser, shooting it right through the engines and making them explode.

The _Vulcan_ cruised nearby, with Aina, Elise and Naoto in their respective suits, covering their ship from the relentless pirate attack. Elise noted Aina's moves seemed natural, as if she would've been piloting mobile suits forever like her. She then noted Naoto nearby, barely dodging a Zaku/GM hybrid's attack and shooting it through the cockpit.

_He has talent_, Elise thought, _but he needs practice. A LOT of practice_.

She then had what she called a "flash": something was coming. She then realized, to her horror, that one of the grotesqueries was rushing towards Naoto at full speed.

"Naoto, look out!" she shouted, moving towards him. Perhaps she could block the shot, or shoot the bastard down…

It seemed too late, as the grotesque mobile suit drew a heat tomahawk and swung it right at Naoto's cockpit. Naoto screamed in terror, fighting the makeshit gatling gun in his Junior MS futilely at the heavy mobile suit, when Elise pushed the pirate away and shot her beam rifle point-blank into the grotesquery's cockpit, vaporizing its pilot and destroying it. She quickly turned to Naoto, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Naoto replied, and he then grinned, "Oh, you so cute, all worried about me."

Elise noted she had blushed a little in her cheeks, and quickly shook her head, "Oh, you-!" she mumbled, "Don't get the wrong idea! I wouldn't want to like- Ah screw it!"

She then flew off, leaving Naoto with a _big_ smile in his face. He sighed as he saw his beautiful Elise cut two Zaku/GM hybrids down in a fit of rage. "Ah, so beautiful when she's angry."

Naoto then noted another Zaku/GM hybrid closing in and quickly shot it down with his Junior MS's beam rifle and quickly shot it down. "Go get'em, Elise!" he shouted.

As all of this happened, McKay continued his slaughter of Pirates, but he started to feel uneasy: their numbers just seemed to grow for every one he shot down. However, this didn't matter to him: all he had to do was to keep firing until not one of them was left. Using his hip beam cannons, he then shot six pirates in quick succession. They all exploded.

While McKay was having no problem with them, his buddies were starting to get overwhelmed, with one of them, Brosnan, impaled by a pirate. Another one drew his GM III's missile launchers and started firing wildly at the pirates approaching him, but despite shooting down half of them, the other half literally _slammed_ their mobile suits with his, disabling his systems. One of them then started carrying the terrified pilot towards the pirate fleet, and the rest of them proceeded to McKay's buddies. Cole, another of the GM III pilots, drew a hyper bazooka and shot another pirate down. He fired again, but missed. He fired again, but the pirate he shot at seemed to have some kind of hyper-alloy shield, which blocked the shot, but at the expense of said shield, which cracked and was blown to pieces. The pirate drew a grotesque heat rod and tackled Cole's GM III, and then proceeded to cut off each of the mobile suit's limbs. The other GM IIIs soon found themselves similarly overwhelmed, and as this happened, a huge wave of pirate mobile suits suddenly began rushing towards the colony and the Federation fleet.

At the bridge of the _Mustache_, Kirk looked on in horror, "Fire high mega particle cannon! Fire all weapons! Just fire!"

The _Mustache_ and the rest of the battered fleet started firing wildly at the wave of pirate mobile suits, and a nearby EWAC Nero tried using a makeshift machine gun against them, but found itself being pierced directly through the cockpit with a razor wire. The mobile suits were now in position, and began shooting off the ships' weapons, as large, cylindrical boarding craft approached at full speed. Some of the Neros and GM IIIs managed to shoot some of these down, but most of them reached their intended targets, latching themselves on the ships' walls and then proceeding to cut part of the hull off.

"We're getting boarded, sir!" one of the _Mustache_'s operators then reported, "Security is trying to repel them, but they're too many!"

"Order all non-essential personnel to evacuate!" Kirk then said, "Prepare for hand-to-hand combat!"

As soon as he said this, the bridge's entrance was smashed open. Kirk quickly drew his sidearm and shot three of the horrible-looking men that were literally _pouring_ into the bridge. The rest of the crew wasn't so lucky: many panicked and cornered themselves, allowing the grotesque men to literally _rip them apart_ with their bare hands. Others were chopped down with basic, cutting tools. Kirk shot four more of these "men" down and sent a distress signal to any of the mobile suits: they might as well destroy the ship than let it be taken over by subhumans. After managing to fend off several of the beastial men from his back, he almost emptied his last clip, until only one bullet was left. Smiling, he pulled the trigger on his own temple, and so ended the brief career of Captain Kirk.

* * *

><p>McKay received the distress signal, and soon saw that more of the boarding craft were heading towards the colony. "Fuckers!" he exclaimed, and after dispatching another pirate ship, he turned around completely and headed towards his fleet. Seeing the ships completely overrun with pirate boarding craft, he transformed into waverider mode and aimed his beam smart gun first into the <em>Mustache<em>'s engines. The beam went directly through the Minovsky fusion drive, causing it to go critical. It exploded, taking any pirate inside with it and several grotesque mobile suits around it as well. McKay let the beam smart gun cool down, as he aimed the reticule into a _Salamis Kai_-class cruiser which had also been overrun. He fired, and the same effect occurred: the engines went critical, and the ship exploded. He saw that another cruiser had been overrun, and he shot it down with equal efficiency. "This doesn't count as 'friendly fire'" he then declared, "They were no longer friendlies to me."

His sensors flashed and an alarm sounded: about _two dozen_ mobile suits were closing in on him. He fired his Vulcans futilely, and transformed into MS mode. Accelerating towards the carcass of the _Mustache_, McKay then drew his beam sabers, only to find himself assailed by horrible-looking mobile suits that came out of nowhere. Restraining him, another mobile suit, this time indescribable due to its disgusting and horrible design, drew what seemed to be an oversized heat chainsaw. McKay fired his head Vulcans in vain, as the horrifying mobile suit slowly closed the chainsaw into the Zeta Plus' torso…

Elise felt huge pain in her head: someone was suffering a slow, painful death. It was horrible: Elise could feel his screams. "Damn it…" she muttered. She aimed her beam rifle and shot another pirate down. _There goes ten in five minutes_, she thought, _When will this end?_

She saw how the pirates started to rip the Zeta Plus C1 apart, and tried started to shoot at them, in a futile attempt to save the pilot: however, by the time she had dispatched all of the pirates, the pilot's presence had "faded". She felt a twinge in her chest, uncomfortable of what just happened. But she couldn't get distracted: the ship was still vulnerable in this airspace, and then there was the colony, which without the Federation's fleet, was basically naked to pirate attacks…

"Elise! Get back to the ship!" Shiro's voice then said through the radio, "We're going to see if we can get rid of those boarding craft in the space gate!"

Elise shot down another abomination down, and turned around, "Aye, captain!" she replied with a somewhat enthusiastic voice. She fired up her engines, accelerated towards the ship, and cut down one of the boarding craft in the way. Her GM II was then suddenly hit from behind, and one of her thrusters started to malfunction. She used her mobile suit's AMBAC capabilities to make a quick turn-around and fired a beam straight through the cockpit of one of her pursuers. She fired her Vulcans in the head of another, damaging the mono-eye of the beastial enemy. She shot another beam from her rifle, damaging another mobile suit, but all of a sudden, a razor wire cut the rifle off her suit's hand. She grunted, and drew one of her beam sabers. Slashing at the attacking mobile suit, she managed to cut a second wire, and then lunged at the enemy, who dodged. A disgustingly-decorated Zaku approached her in full speed, with a beam saber, and tried to slash at her, but she managed to block the attack and destroy the abomination. "_Vulcan_, this is Elise! Require support at once!" she then said.

"What's the situation?" SHiro asked. His voice showed he was busy at his own end.

"I have three bastards trying to get me!" she replied.

"I can't send Aina or Naoto to you!" Shiro then told her, "They're repelling some boarding craft as we speak!" His voice then paused, "Goddamn it, I told you to prepare that sector for decompression!"

The transmission was then cut off, but Elise didn't need any more explaining: the ship was having enough trouble already. She would handle these three on her own and then help the ship as best as she could. She pushed the lever as much as she could, accelerating the GM to the max, and cut another enemy down. However, two more appeared, and she was forced to draw her other remaining beam saber. She clashed one of her sabers with that of with what looked like a bastardized Gelgoog, and used her other beam saber to cut the left arm of the hideous mobile suit. "That serves you right!" she shouted, and she then used her other saber to impale the Gelgoog right through the chest.

But the pirates were relentless, and she seemed to be some sort of magnet to them. And as she fought her current enemies, more and more pirate mobile suits rushed towards her. There was no time: desperate to get back to her ship, she threw her GM's shield, which cleaved itself into one of the enemy mobile suits. She continued firing her Vulcans until no more ammunition was left, and soon, she was completely surrounded by hideous mobile suits, which lunged at her, at their prey…

And then, from the distance, a long beam cut half of the enemies surrounding her. The pirate mobile suits stopped their attack and seemed confused, as another beam, this one thick but equally long, wiped what was left out.

"What was that?" Elise wondered, turning to see from where the beams had come from. Her answer came to her, as three large mobile suits cruised past her: the FA-010A FAZZ, the predecessor to the legendary ZZ Gundam, and piloted by veteran Shin Crypt; an MSZ-006C1 Zeta Plus C1, this one piloted by Monica Fenette, a veteran from Side 2; and on the lead, the MSZ-006C1[Bst] Zeta Plus "Hummingbird", piloted by the unfairly unknown hero Ryu Roots, who had single-handedly averted the total destruction of Dakar in UC 0088 by the renegade New Desides.

Ryu looked at the scene before him: it was one of utter chaos, with civilian ships being raided and captured by pirates, the Federation flotilla trashed, and a few government mobile suits holding their ground by themselves, surrounded by the enemy. "Green Oak Squad, standard maneuvres! Cover all civilian ships back to the colony's space gate! To all remaining Federation mobile suits: return to the space gate at once! We'll cover your retreat!"

"Roger!" multiple voices replied in unison by the radio. The Green Oak Squad then moved in, and Ryu fired his two beam smart guns in succession for each target, destroying six ships and ten mobile suits, which all exploded in splendid fashion. Elise took this opportunity to finish off a grotesque mobile pod and get back to her ship, which was already retreating to the colony. As this happened, Shin used his Large Hyper Mega Cannon, swinging the three second-long shot effectively so that he could get as many mobile suits down as possible. And he succeeded: in fact, he not only took twelve mobile suits down, but three ships as well. Shin grinned, and then fired his shoulder cannons at some approaching mobile suits. Nearby, Monica transformed into MS mode and fired her beam cannons in quick succession as well, destroying five mobile suits in seconds. Drawing her beam smart gun, she then approached one of the ugly ships and fired into the engines, destroying the ship. She then transformed back into waverider mode, and fired her beam cannons and smart gun in barrages against a wave of attackers. Two pirates tried to pursue her, but Ryu swooped in and fired three successive beams, destroying them.

As the three aces managed themselves, the remaining Federation Neros, GM IIIs, Nouvels and fighters regrouped in front of the colony's space gate and fired barrages at the decreasing waves of enemies. As one of the Nouvel GM IIIs was about to be impaled by a pirate, Elise passed by and quickly cut the barbarian down, vaporizing the pilot with a quick slash of her beam saber by the cockpit. "Thanks." The pilot then told her. Elise quickly flew off, afraid that the pilot might ask her who she was, and shot another straggler down.

Ryu and his squad continued their relentless assault against the barbarians, alternating from their strongest beam weapons to wipe out large portions of their fleet and then switching to close combat for those that remained.

Panting, the three pilots then saw the pirates retreating to their fleet, which had seemingly stopped. "What now?" Ryu wondered.

The pirates remained still, without making a move, and a stand off ensued.

"We are going back to the _Pegasus III_, guys." Ryu told his comrades, "We'll resupply and rendezvous with whatever that's left of our friendly forces."

"Roger that, sir!" his comrades replied enthusiastically. The three accelerated towards the Moon's direction, where their ship awaited for their arrival.

As Elise helped several damaged civilian shuttles and ships back to the docking area, Naoto looked at the debris field around the colony from his Junior MS.

"We may have to stay a few more weeks here, captain." He commented with a slight tone of sarcasm.

"This whole thing is a mess." Shiro replied by the radio, "Pirates? If so, then why are they more focused on destroying stuff than capturing ships?"

"Maybe they're not pirates at all." Aina then replied to his husband, "Perhaps they're just people who like chaos: anarchists."

"But aren't anarchists like…violent activists of some sorts?" Derek then asked her as he continued to monitor radio communications in the area, taking some coffee from his thermo while he was at it.

"What happened to the boarding craft that reached the colony?" Elise then wondered. If even _one_ of them managed to unload its boarders, then they would have to search every corner of the megastructure to eradicate them.

"I heard they were all shot down by some Feddie ship." Shiro then reassured her. Elise turned to her comm: it was on. _Damn it_, she thought, _I hate it when this happens_.

She quickly turned it off.

She sighed, and saw a horribly damaged Nero struggling through the debris. She moved towards it, using her mobile suit's arms to grab the Nero's torso from the sides. Elise turned around and went towards the _Vulcan_.

"Thanks." The Nero's pilot called to Elise by the radio.

Elise opened her comm, "No problem." She felt a little happier: helping others always made her feel better, for some reason.

Taking the Nero to the ship, she then looked at where the pirate flotilla had been before: she felt again that unease; that dread.

_They'll be back_, she predicted, _They won't just leave here like that. They want more death…more killing_.

She resumed with her activities, helping a heavily damaged shuttle to return to the colony.

* * *

><p><strong>*So after ten years without any writing, I have finally updated this story. I was too busy with school; the delay might give you an idea of just how busy I was. But enough said on that: next chapter will be uploaded faster, as I already have about half done.<strong>

**In the next few weeks I'll also be updating my other, somewhat popular, story: "The Unicorn Awakens". Stay tuned.**

**Episode 5 of Unicorn rocked! Banagher might _just_ earn my respect...**


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